A.E. Jones's Blog, page 2

A Writer’s Battle With Mother Nature

My last post was about begging winter to go away because it was putting me in a writerly funk, and apparently I made some power-to-be mad, since we’re still having bad weather in my part of the world. Snow should not be allowed in April, at least in my humble opinion, but what do I know…right Mother Nature?

I’m writing this post as rain pours outside my window – but you would point out that it’s not snow…right Mother Nature?

Lately my writing has been as unpredictable as the weather. So I need to keep moving forward through rain, sleet, snow -now I’m comparing myself to the postal service – and get words to page.

I did write a scene the other day that had me laughing, so that was a pleasant change of pace. And I have to remind myself, it’s about the scene and the characters and helping them tell their story to readers that is the important part of writing.

So it may keep snowing or raining, but I also need to keep writing regardless…right Mother Nature?

Winter, Winter Go Away

You would think as a writer that I would like winter. It would allow me to hide away and write. Well, not this year. We have had an extremely harsh winter in my area of the world and it has been dragging me down. And mood impacts writing. So I’m officially writing this post as a mental ‘butt-kicking’ to my writerly self. I need to stop letting the weather get to me and start writing again. Heck, I could be immersing myself in scenes of sandy Mediterranean beaches instead of dwelling on the foot of snow sitting outside my window.

I’ve found that if I write stuff down and share it with you all, it inspires me to deliver. So I’m going to write something this week, dang it!

Just sharing this is a step in the right direction since I haven’t been keeping up with these posts either…

So keep me honest, my friends! I’m going to write, my characters (and I hope you) are demanding it.

New Year Brings New Writerly Ideas

As we all wave at 2021 in our rearview mirrors, I look forward to (fingers crossed) a much better 2022. And for this writer a new year means new ideas. A few weeks ago I posted about stories I’d been working on. Story one is off with some beta readers right now. Story two, that I had hoped to have finished by the end of the year is fighting me a bit. We’re moving forward, but it’s slow. And that’s okay. Over the last couple of years, we’ve all had to adjust to a new way of life. Why should my writing be any different?

The story I’m working on is a brand new series which can be both exciting and scary at the same time. The plan is that it would be a trilogy and would be about something different than vampires, or demons, or fae. And that’s all I’m going to say on it for now. Sorry to be a tease, but I want to have a better idea of what I’m going to do with the series before I give you more info.

Just know I’m moving forward, one word at a time

The Like Edit

I’ve talked in the past about the numerous edits that take place for a story. You write the manuscript and then you go through it again and clean it up. It goes out to beta readers who give you their opinions and then it’s off to your editor. For me, that normally means a developmental readthrough and then what I like to call the ‘bloody edit’ followed by line edits, and finally the proof read. Wow – sounds exhausting, right?

One of the edits that I don’t talk about a lot is what I call the ‘do you like it edit’. And that can be a hard one. And it can happen more than once. For me, I spend so much time on edits that inevitably the story and I change along the way. I have to read the story through and ask myself do I still like it?

Right now, I’m reading a story I’ve been working on. It hasn’t even started the laundry list of edits above, but that’s okay. I’m reading it to see if I like it enough to go through the steps.

It’s a bit surreal reading your own stories. Sometimes you get bogged down in minutia, but other times you read along and think – ‘that’s good, did I write that?’ That is where I like to land. It might take multiple edits to get there, but I want my readers to enjoy the story as much as I do in the end.

How an Author Tempts You

The hope of any author is to write a story that tempts the reader to continue on. To read about the compelling characters and amazing plot and want to see where it leads.

Something the reader can connect with and root for and not put down.

Right now, I am actually working on two different books. A little crazy? Maybe, but they are very different except for (I hope) that they both pull the reader in and not let them go.

So I’m hoping to finalize book one and finish writing book two by the end of the year. We’ll see if that is possible. And no worries, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Halloween Celebrated in Style

As promised I am sharing this year’s costume with you. So what do you think? I actually think it turned out really cute this year (if I do say so myself). And since I didn’t have a party this year, I shared the costume with my neighbors and sent all kinds of pics to my co-workers who were used to me (pre-pandemic) wearing a costume to work.

As a paranormal author, I think that it’s my duty to don a costume and share it with the world. It makes people smile (hopefully) and that is enough reason to do it. But then, that has been my philosophy about my writing too. I want to bring a smile to my readers as well as provide an escape for them.

Hopefully someone shared a bit of their Halloween spirit with you this year as well.

How this Paranormal Author Celebrates Halloween!

It’s my favorite time of year, folks. And as you can imagine, my holiday is less than a week away! I’ve loved Halloween for as long as I can remember and since that melds nicely with my paranormal writing, it’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned.

In pre-pandemic world, I had a work party and a house party to celebrate. And of course a costume contest since creativity abounds. This year, I won’t be having parties, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t decorate my house! So this picture is my witches and cats themed mantle. What do you think? And yes, the cat on the mantle’s eyes are glowing, as are the cat eyes in the hanging decorations – hee, hee!

And I will be dressing up and walking around the neighbor on Halloween since I can’t NOT dress up. No worries – I’ll share my costume with you next week!

Whatever you do for your holiday, I hope it is full of laughter, sweets, and creative costume choices!

What’s A Writer to Do When Fall Isn’t Fall

A few weeks ago, I posted about how excited I was that fall was near. As you know by now if you follow my posts, I love the leaves changing color and the smell of autumn in the air. Well, in my part of the world, the leaves are not changing like they normally do. They are either falling off in their still green state, or the leaves are turning an ugly shade of brown and littering the ground instead of providing me with a glorious color palette.

What to do?

I’m a writer, which means I have an imagination, right?

I’ll just picture the rainbow of yellows, reds, and oranges decorating the trees and the ground. The crunch of said leaves under my feet and the warm fall sun hitting my face as I meander on a crisp fall day. Are you there with me? If I can get swept into another writer’s story in a different country or city or planet for that matter, I can imagine fall in Ohio the way I like to spend it.

Oh wait, now I’m smelling roasted marshmallows – yum. Can’t forget about the smell factor here too!

So this writer’s imagination is playing double duty right now for both my stories and my perfect fall day. Hope your imagination sends you on an adventure as well, even if it’s a simple stroll through the park.

Heading into Fall and Writing

In my part of the world we are heading into Fall and cooler weather. As much as I’ll miss the warmer weather (especially in January), I’m looking forward to my favorite season. I love less humidity and the leaves changing color and of course, Halloween. You know I would had to get that in there, right?

And as I hunker down into my house, I also hunker down into writing too. Summer is distracting because you want to be outside as much as possible. Cold weather is all about blankets, soup, reading, and writing for me. So fingers crossed that the new story I started at the beginning of the month keeps flowing as the nights get chilly and I put away my shorts for yoga pants.

The ironic thing is that the story I am writing is taking place in the summer, so while I chill out, my characters heat up in more ways than one

Happy fall or spring depending on where you live!

May the Muse Be With You

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog about new ideas for new stories. Well, I’m taking one of the ideas I had then and I am delving into it. I’m excited about it and so far I’m not having trouble working on the next scene each night. To me, that’s progress.

As a writer (as with anything else) there is both good and bad that comes with it. When you’re able to keep writing and it doesn’t feel like someone is yanking your teeth out, that’s a really good thing. I’ve been thinking less about word count and more about scenes.

We’ll see how the story ebbs and flows. I think this is going to be one of my stories that I write out of order. If I get a really good scene that comes to me, I have to write it down even if it won’t be until later in the book. I can’t seem to help myself. But those are normally some of the best scenes in the book, so I’m not going to stop doing it

Fingers crossed that the muse stays with me and these characters have their stories told.